Generally agreed to be Maugham's masterpiece, it is an autobiographical novel
which deals with the life of Philip Carey, who, like Maugham, was orphaned and
brought up by his pious uncle. Maugham's severe stutter has been replaced by
Philip's clubfoot. The novel takes the form of a bildungsroman, tracing the
protagonist's travels to Germany, Paris, and London while exploring his
intellectual and emotional development.

In Germany, Phillip is the naive young student whose heart and mind swivels
between a romantic English man and a practical American. It is obvious Maugham's
sympathy lies with the practical American, though it is clear his alter ego
Phillip Carey is more impressed by the romantic English man's roseated view of
life.

When Phillip comes back from Germany, he meets a Miss Wilkinson who is a
daughter of Phillip's Uncle's colleague. Miss Wilkinson is much older than
Phillip but is very flirtatious. Eventually, they agree to a rendez-vous in
which it is implicitly understood something sexually intimate is to take place
between them. Maugham, and Phillip, leaves it ambiguous as to whether they
actually consummated any physical intimacy for he makes clear Phillip is
repelled by Miss Wilkinson's body. In the course of their interaction, Phillip
treats Miss Wilkinson with disdain and cruelty. This aspect of Phillip's
character including his cruelty to Nora, a honorable woman who nursed Phillip
emotionally speaking after Mildred deserted him for the umpteenth time, makes
clear Maugham's own disdain of any notion of a person who is all good or all
evil. One can at most try. Phillip is ultimately the emotional abuser and the
emotional abused.

"It is very difficult for a writer of my generation, if he
is honest, to pretend indifference to the work of Somerset Maugham. He was
always so entirely there." -- Gore Vidal

"Here is a novel of the utmost importance. It is a beacon of light by which the
wanderer may be guided... One feels as though one were sitting before a splendid
Shiraz of priceless texture and intricate weave, admiring, feeling, responding
sensually to its colors and tones." -- Theodore Dreiser